Is Your Country at Risk of Becoming a Dictatorship? Here’s How to Know (Transcript)

A few weeks ago, somebody tweeted during the midterm elections in the United States that Election Day should be made a holiday.

And I retweeted, saying, “Well, you’re welcome to come to my country and vote. You’ll get the whole week off to allow the military to count it.”

I come from Togo, by the way. It is a beautiful country located in West Africa. There are some cool, interesting facts about my country. Togo has been ruled by the same family for 51 years, making us the oldest autocracy in Africa. That’s a record.

We have a second-coolest record: we have been ranked three times as the unhappiest country on earth. You are all invited.

So just to let you know, it’s not very cool to live under an autocracy. But the interesting thing is that I have met, throughout the course of my activism, so many people from different countries, and when I tell them about Togo, their reaction is always, “How can you guys allow the same people to terrorize you for 51 years? You know, like, you Togolese, you must be very patient.” That’s their diplomatic way of saying “stupid.”

And when you live in a free country, there’s this tendency of assuming that those who are oppressed tolerate their oppression or are comfortable with it, and democracy is projected as a progressive form of governance in such a way that those people who don’t live under democratic countries are seen as people who are not intellectually or maybe morally as advanced as others.

But it’s not the case. The reason why people have that perception has to do with the way stories are covered about dictatorships. In the course of my activism, I have had to interview with so many news outlets out there, and usually it would always start with, “What got you started? What inspired you?”

And I go on about how my father was arrested when I was 13, and tortured, all the history I don’t want to get into details now, because you’ll start sleeping.

But the thing is, at the end of the day, what interests them the most is: How was he tortured? For how many days? How many people died? They are interested in the abuse, in the killing, because they believe that will gain attention and sympathy.

But in reality, it serves the purpose of the dictator. It helps them advertise their cruelty. In 2011, I co-founded a movement I call “Faure Must Go,” because Faure is the first name of our president.

Togo is a French-speaking country, by the way, but I chose English because I had my issues with France as well. But then —

But then, when I started Faure Must Go, I made a video, and I came on camera, and I said, “Well, Faure Gnassingbé, I give you 60 days to resign as president, because if you don’t, we the youth in Togo will organize and we will bring you down, because you have killed over 500 of our countrymen to seize power when your father died. We have not chosen you. You are an imposter, and we will remove you.”

But I was the only known face of the movement. Why? Because I was the only stupid one. And the backlashes followed.

My family started receiving threats. My siblings called me one morning. They said, “You know what? When they come here to kill you, we don’t want to die with you, so move out.”

So yes, I moved out. And I’m so angry at them, so I haven’t talked to them in five years.

Anyway, moving forward. For the past nine years, I have been working with countries to raise awareness of Togo, to help the people of Togo overcome their fear so they, too, can come and say they want change.

I have received a lot of persecution that I cannot disclose, a lot of threats, a lot of abuse, psychologically. But I don’t like talking about them, because I know that my job as an activist is to mobilize, is to organize, is to help every single Togolese citizen understand that, as citizens, we hold the power, we are the boss and we decide.

And the punishment that the dictators are using to intimidate them must not prevent us from getting what we want. That is why I said it is very important to cover the stories of activists in the way that it helps mobilize people, not in the way that it helps deter their action and force even more their subjugation to the oppressive system.

During these years that I’ve been an activist, there are days that I felt like quitting because I couldn’t take it.

Well then, what kept me going? The one thing that kept me going: I remember the story of my grandfather, and how he used to walk 465 miles from his village to the city, just to protest for independence.

Then I remember the sacrifice of my father, who was tortured so many times for daring to protest against the regime. Back in the ’70s, they would write pamphlets to raise awareness on the dictatorship, and because they couldn’t afford to make copies, they would reproduce the same pamphlet 500 times each and distribute them. It got to a point where the military knew their handwriting, so as soon as they stumbled upon one, they’d go and get them.